As technology becomes increasingly sophisticated, document processing applications have consistently kept pace to offer innovative features and options. Document processing has thus evolved from typewritten pages to computer generated spreadsheets, macros and the like.
One area of document processing which has received much attention is formatting. As used in the art, the term formatting relates to the ability of an application program, typically a word processing program, to fashion a document to conform to detailed specifications so as to provide a user with greater control over the look and feel of the generated output. For example, using presently available software, a page can be formatted to include various logos, fonts and characters in a variety of styles, sizes and locations. As a result, each page in a document may be laid out in a manner which is both artistically and visually pleasing to a reader.
Against this background, the ability to control the justification or alignment of a given set of lines on a page has become a useful document processing feature. As those skilled in the art will recognize, justification provides a user with a number of formatting options, including, for example, the choices of centering selected text, as well as, aligning the text at either the left or right margins. Using this feature, a user may justify certain sections or an entire text depending on each individual application and the corresponding printing constraints.
According to custom, document titles or section headings are generally center justified. Similarly, charts and tables are often left justified for visual effect. Word processing programs have thus been structured to allow a user to designate particular lines from the document for right, left and center justification.
While formatting features are well known in word processing programs, they have heretofore been unavailable for use in document system libraries. Typically, documents which are generated from such libraries are done so according to predefined formatting and justification rules which may not be modified by a user. As a result, the format of the generated document may often times be unsuitable for a desired application, especially when retrieved years after its original production.
Consequently, there exists a need for a method of justification of a plurality of fonts and a plurality of characters in a text string within a document generated from a document system library.